Pierre Morton, left, and Michael Giuliano of New Haven, a married gay couple, are foster parents to two boys, ages 15 and 16, from Boys & Girls Village of Milford. Boys & Girls Village has recently made a concerted effort to “modernize” by reaching out to “nontraditional” families for foster parenting. May is National Foster Care Month. Wednesday, April 13, 2015. less

Pierre Morton, left, and Michael Giuliano of New Haven, a married gay couple, are foster parents to two boys, ages 15 and 16, from Boys & Girls Village of Milford. Boys & Girls Village has recently made ... more

Photo: Peter Hvizdak — New Haven Register

Photo: Peter Hvizdak — New Haven Register

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Pierre Morton, left, and Michael Giuliano of New Haven, a married gay couple, are foster parents to two boys, ages 15 and 16, from Boys & Girls Village of Milford. Boys & Girls Village has recently made a concerted effort to “modernize” by reaching out to “nontraditional” families for foster parenting. May is National Foster Care Month. Wednesday, April 13, 2015. less

Pierre Morton, left, and Michael Giuliano of New Haven, a married gay couple, are foster parents to two boys, ages 15 and 16, from Boys & Girls Village of Milford. Boys & Girls Village has recently made ... more

Family life is good in their cozy New Haven home and Morton and Giuliano have plans to legally adopt the boys who have never been able to find a forever home.

“When they say parenting is the hardest job in the world, they’re right,” Morton said. “But it’s also the most fulfilling.”

Like others in therapeutic foster care who often struggle with issues of abuse, neglect or trauma, the boys receive a lot of therapy to deal with their family issues of the past. Communicating feelings is a challenge.

But the boys are thriving — as are their two dads.

“I love it here,” Angel said. “Basically, I actually get to be like a teenager. It’s just like a normal family — even better because it’s relaxing.”

Angel said that when he heard he was going to have two dads, he thought they would be “feminine,” but they are not at all.

Chris, who said his early roots are with a biological family who are not accepting of gay relationships — and so he was leery of being placed in the home — has come to “look right by” that aspect of his family. And to his surprise, Chris said, friends he brings home aren’t even fazed by his two-dad situation.

What’s more important to Chris: “I really never had the opportunity to have a family until now. No one wanted to keep me permanently,” he said. “These guys help me get through everything, my family issues.”

The two teenagers are heterosexual.

Morton, 45 and Giuliano, 37, who have fostered children of many ages through the years and had envisioned adopting a younger child or children, couldn’t be happier than to have their two teenagers.

Morton said he always thought he wanted to raise a younger child because he believed he could have more impact. But he’s come to see that love, structure, security and a strong family can affect a teen just as much.

Besides, Morton said he realized, “I’m 45 years old. I need children who are a lot more self-sufficient.”

Giuliano said they became interested in fostering teens when he went to the Boys & Girls Village website and saw how desperately homes were needed for the age group.

“It just breaks my heart that they were the forgotten in the system,” Giuliano said of his sons.

Yvette Wooten, manager of the therapeutic foster care program at Boys & Girls Village, said teenagers are hard to place — and there are thousands in the state looking for homes. “People feel they’re able to cultivate younger ones into family and that teenagers don’t want to be part of a family.”

But that’s not true, Wooten said. Teenagers crave family and need love, she said, and having a family gives them “a soft place to fall,” nurturance, parents to celebrate their successes, someone to call for help.

“That’s what Pierre and Michael have done for these boys,” Wooten said.

She said BGV is an “open and affirming” agency that welcomes to its foster care program nontraditional families such as same-gender couples and single people.

“The children thrive in all of these settings,“ Wooten said. “As the culture of families is changing, we’re hoping the culture of adopting older children will change.”

Wooten said of the kids who are placed in therapeutic homes: “What impresses me is the resilience they have to overcome the challenges in their lives.”

The teens in the Morton/Giuliano household are very different, but are respectful, and protective of one other, their dads said.

Angel, a talented artist, is described by his dads as “off the wall, gregarious, hyper” and when Morton walks in the door each night Angel yells, “‘Daddy’s home’ and hugs me every day,” Morton said. The two are close.

The dads proudly have Angel’s report card on the fridge — mostly As, one B — a far cry from the Ds and Fs he used to bring home. Giuliano and Morton, while bragging about the report card to a visitor, broke into a side conversation about whether it would be appropriate to post it on Facebook.

“They encouraged me” to get better grades and study, Angel said.

Chris, a talented dancer and singer who apparently does a wicked impression of Morton singing, is described by his dads as more “chill,” and shows his affection less outwardly. Chris, who is closer to Giuliano, won’t jump into anyone’s arms, but he’ll jump onto the bed and watch a movie with his dads.

This is Chris’ seventh foster home placement.

“I refuse to have this boy put in another home. You can only take so much rejection,” Giuliano said.

Chris, who is also into sports, was recently selected as a standout global young leader, nominated by a history teacher, and will have the opportunity to travel to Chicago for a conference.

The dads proudly display the fancy award certificate, then get into a side conversation about how it should be a “family event” and Michael and Angel should go to Chicago to support Chris, as Pierre will be on a business trip to Africa.

“In my heart, he needs to go,” Giuliano tells Morton of Angel.

Morton then turns to a visitor and says, “Michael (Giuliano) forces us to communicate in ways we never did.”

The couple said parenthood has thrown them surprises along the way and also changed their relationship.

Both men say they are blessed with great, understanding bosses who let them take off in middle of the day if there’s an emergency or appointment regarding the kids.

Morton, raised in a strict Louisiana household with the old philosophy that children should be seen and not heard, said he’s a more casual, relaxed a parent than he thought he would be.

“If they’re alive at the end of the day, I’m good,” he joked.

Morton said he and Giuliano have a solid relationship, but parenthood has put that to the test. You have to keep a sense of humor, they said.

Both Chris and Angel have relationships with their biological parents, and the adoption will be open, but the biological parents don’t have legal parental rights anymore, Morton said.

Each boy requires a different parenting approach because their issues are different. Angel thrives with an incentive-based approach and Chris responds to direction, the dads said.

Giuliano is the parent who looks to every detail — the calendar, the expression on a face, interpreting moods and how they may relate to the journey of the boys’ recovery. He’s into the day-to-day minutia. Giuliano said he’s the one the kids at preschool go to first when they’re crying or upset.

“He’s a great father because he pays attention,” and remembers all the details,” Morton says of Giuliano.

Morton said parenthood has taught them to step back and readjust their own needs — and Giuliano agrees.

“One you have kids, you give up your life. It’s unselfish,” Giuliano said like a veteran dad.